Hearing her timid knock at the door made my heart jump and I rushed to open it, excited to tell her how perfect everything was. Watching her collapse into a puddle of tears was like a punch to the throat.
Pulling her inside, I kept the door shut and guided her to the couch. “Breathe, baby,” I murmured, handing her a tissue as I sat close beside her.
“I’m sorry,” she sputtered.
“It’s all right. Just get it out, and tell me what’s wrong when you’re ready.”
Her sobbing became even worse.
Holding her against my shoulder, I stroked her back softly, murmuring, “Whatever it is, I’ll fix it. Just take a slow breath.”
After a few minutes, she seemed to get herself under control, and looked up at me in embarrassment. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
“Angel,” I said, brushing my thumb under her eye to wipe away the tears, “I only want you to be yourself around me. If that includes occasional crying, that’s fine. Can you tell me what’s wrong?”
“I don’t want to be the jealous, suspicious type,” she choked.
“Okay,” I said slowly, still stroking her back gently. “That’s good, I guess.”
“But I was going through your messages, and there was a photo of you with a pretty blonde girl, and you looked like you were about to kiss her. It hurt to see something like that, I just–”
I interrupted her with a light kiss. “Corina, do you mean the girl with the dangling blue earrings?”
“Yes. Is she an ex girlfriend, or something?”
Leaning back, I reached blindly beside the couch until I felt the paper gift bag. I set it in her lap, as she shifted back
a little.
“What’s this?”
“Just open it.”
She pulled out the light blue tissue paper to find a little white box. Opening it slowly, she gasped as she saw an identical pair of blue earrings.
“I ran into that girl at a coffee shop,” I said. “I stopped her because those earrings were your favorite shade of blue. It turned out that she was a fan, who absolutely adored one of my love songs. I was telling her that I wanted to buy those earrings for my beautiful new girlfriend just as her friend took the photo.”
Corina gasped, her hands fluttering.
“Don’t cry again, angel.” I tipped her chin up with my finger. “I know it’s weird that a lot of women will be around me. But I only have eyes for you, I swear.”
She nodded slowly. “I trust you, it’s just a lot of emotional stuff to deal with all at once.”
“I got you these to thank you for all of your hard work,” I said, entwining our fingers after she set everything aside.
“I don’t want to be needy,” she said quickly. “Everything is just so new and fragile. I promise, once we’ve been together a while, I’m sure I’ll relax.”
Her little smile was forced, but I returned it anyway.
As we melted into each other, kissing, snuggling, and whispering, I realized that my precious girl was going to need a lot more than a promise and a pair of earrings to feel secure with me.
She was the studious type, who expected things to happen a certain way. I was often flying by the seat of my pants, and got thrown around by scheduling, events, and shows.
There had to be a way to tell Corina that she was absolutely the one for me, and I would never look at another woman again.
As the fire burned between us through our kisses, I realized what I needed to do.
It was going to shock her. It was probably going to scare the daylights out of my shy, sweet girl. But if I was going to make a point and tell her that she was my woman forever, I’d be better off going all in.